5.  The applicant was born in 1953 and lives in Kaarina.
6.  The applicant is the sole answerable partner in a limited partnership company called Porin West-Print Ky. At the material time its line of activities was, inter alia, car repair and painting services, restaurant services and metal work.
7.  The National Bureau of Investigation carried out a pre-trial investigation into the business activities of Porin West-Print Ky. The applicant, who was questioned as a suspect in an alleged tax fraud, proclaimed his innocence. In his closing statement, he expressed the view that other companies, represented by two other named individuals, had carried out the business activities which were the subject of the investigation and were therefore liable to pay tax. The file does not disclose whether anyone was charged with and convicted of the alleged offence.
8.  In 1999 the south-west Finland Tax Office carried out a tax inspection into Porin West-Print Ky. It found that during the period from July 1998 to 20 December 1999 over 840,000 Finnish marks (FIM) (approximately 141,278 euros (EUR)) had been credited to the company’s account. The money had been paid in by several companies but most of the funds had not been recorded in the company’s books as income.
9.  Basing himself on those transactions, the tax inspector considered that there was evidence of a sub-contracting relationship between Porin West-Print Ky and another company, R. Porin West-Print Ky’s line of activities had to be considered to include the sale of sub-contracting services to R. Formally this activity had been carried out in the name of another company T./Porin West-Print Ky and company F. For this reason, the tax inspector considered that Porin West-Print Ky was liable for the deduction of tax and social-security contributions in respect of the salaries paid to identified and unidentified employees. The total amount of the salaries was estimated on the basis of a list of hours worked found in the book-keeping records of R. and the bank statements of Porin West-Print Ky and the applicant. The salaries paid to identified employees ran to FIM 324,681 for the year 1998 and 53,000 in 1999. An additional FIM 50,000 was added in respect of unidentified employees to the estimated salaries for 1998.
10.  Based on this reassessment, the Tax Office increased the tax liability and ordered the payment of FIM 359,609 in respect of 1998 and FIM 59,913 in respect of 1999. The file does not disclose the amounts of the tax surcharges.
11.  Following a rectification request, the first amount was reduced to FIM 354,952.
12.  Porin West-Print Ky appealed to the Turku Administrative Court (hallinto-oikeus, förvaltningsdomstolen), requesting an oral hearing and that the court hear testimony from the applicant and four other persons, Mr E.N., Mr A.L., Mr M.V. and Mr H.S. Porin West-Print Ky also requested a stay of enforcement until the case had been examined. According to the application form lodged with the Court, the amount in dispute was by then equivalent to EUR 33,885.
13.  Porin West-Print Ky argued that Mr H.S. or companies T. and F., both controlled by Mr H.S., were responsible for social-security contributions. Although he had given Mr H.S. use of the Porin West-Print Ky bank card, the applicant had had nothing to do with the sub-contracting activities of Mr H.S. and his companies. As the sub-contracting work had been invoiced using the names and business indexes of the companies of Mr H.S., Porin West-Print Ky could not be considered liable to taxation.
14.  The Administrative Court received the written statements of the Tax Office and the tax inspector and the observations of the Tax Ombudsman and Porin West-Print Ky. The latter requested a stay of proceedings until the alleged tax fraud had been examined by the District Court.
15.  In its decision of 22 May 2002 the Administrative Court noted that the company had requested an oral hearing to hear testimony about its business activities, about the identity of the employer in the sub-contracting jobs, about the sub-contracting invoiced on behalf of companies T., E. and F. and about the negotiations and sub-contracting jobs for R. It found an oral hearing manifestly unnecessary having regard to the tax inspection report, the other documents on the file and the fact that the applicant and three of the witnesses proposed had made statements on these issues during the pre-trial investigation. It did not comment on the request for a stay of proceedings.
16.  The Administrative Court referred in evidence to, inter alia, the statements of the applicant and three of the witnesses proposed given during the pre-trial investigation and the tax inspection. It rejected the appeal and gave the following reasons:
“...
Conclusions
The Administrative Court considers, in particular on the basis of the statements of Mr H.S. and Mr M.V., the use of the preliminary taxation register of company T. ... and the transactions on the bank account, that it has been shown that the applicant has operated actively within Porin West-Print Ky. Therefore, the allegation that he did not have knowledge of the sub-contracting invoicing but only functioned as an employee of the companies owned by Mr H.S. is not credible. The applicant, as the answerable partner, is responsible for those using the company’s bank account and for the purposes of this use. The fact that Mr H.S. has used the company’s bank card does not show how the money withdrawn has been used.
The Administrative Court finds that Porin West-Print Ky has carried out sub-contracting jobs for R. and that the invoicing has gone through companies T. and F. as dummies, as explained by the applicant himself in his reply at the preparatory stage of the tax inspection. Therefore the company is, as an employer, liable for the deduction of the tax and social–security contributions in respect of the salaries paid to its employees. As the estimation of the amounts of the salaries has not been shown to be incorrect, there is no reason to amend the decision to order payment.”
17.  Porin West-Print Ky appealed again, renewing at the same time its request either for an oral hearing in the Supreme Administrative Court or for the case to be referred back to the lower court.
18.  On 27 September 2002 the Supreme Administrative Court refused leave to appeal. It reasoned:
“The question in this case is whether Porin West-Print Ky is to be considered responsible as an employer for the deduction of tax and social-security contributions in respect of the employees considered to have worked for it, that is, whether Porin West-Print Ky is rightly considered to be liable to pay for the sub-contracting jobs in respect of which the contract invoicing and salaries have gone through the company’s books and bank accounts. There is no reason to bring the case before the Supreme Administrative Court in the interests of the application of the law in other, similar cases or the uniformity of legal practice. Nor has there been any manifest error in the examination of the case. There are likewise no pressing economic reasons to grant leave to appeal.”